Ukraine Hits Major Lukoil Refinery and Knocks Out Russian Pole-21 GPS Jammer

Ukrainian forces struck one of Russia’s largest oil refineries and a powerful electronic warfare system designed to disrupt satellite navigation and precision-guided weapons, Ukraine’s General Staff reported on July 31.

The attack hit the Lukoil-Volgogradneftepererabotka refinery in Volgograd, where confirmed impacts were followed by a fire on the facility’s grounds. The extent of the damage is still being assessed.

With an annual processing capacity of roughly 15 million metric tons of crude oil, the refinery produces gasoline, diesel, aviation fuel, and other petroleum products. Ukraine’s military said the plant also supplies fuel for the Russian armed forces.

Ukrainian forces separately struck a Russian Pole-21 electronic warfare system near Holubivka in temporarily occupied Luhansk region.

The Pole-21 entered Russian service in 2016 and is designed to jam signals from satellite-navigation systems, disrupting the guidance of missiles, bombs, aircraft, drones, and other weapons that depend on precise positioning data.

Ukraine previously captured an intact example of the system in the Kharkiv region, allowing specialists to study its capabilities.

According to military expert Ihor Sydorenko, Pole-21 uses a modular architecture built around R-340RP jamming posts. Each post contains electronic equipment and can support up to three antenna modules, while a remote command station can control as many as 100 posts.

“Each Pole-21 jamming antenna module can suppress radio signals at a distance of at least 25 kilometers. Its power potential is 300–1,000 watts. It operates within a sector 125 degrees wide in azimuth and 25 degrees in elevation,” Sydorenko said.

“The post consumes up to 600 watts of power. The system is capable of suppressing signals from all existing navigation systems,” he added.

The equipment can be mounted on dedicated towers, communications masts, or vehicles and linked through either wired or radio connections.

“With optimal placement, one system with 100 antenna posts can cover an area of 150 by 150 kilometers,” Sydorenko said. “A reliable jamming ‘dome’ is created over that area, making satellite navigation impossible.”

Ukraine also struck a Russian ammunition depot near Naumivka in temporarily occupied Crimea and a command post near Bakhmut in the Donetsk region.

The coordinated attacks targeted several parts of Russia’s military support structure at once: fuel production, electronic warfare, ammunition storage, and battlefield command.

Earlier, Ukrainian military intelligence tracked down and struck a Russian Murmansk-BN electronic warfare station near Cape Fiolent in temporarily occupied Crimea.

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